Gene Stone:

December 21, 2005

Ford does the right thing Just last week things were looking pretty bleak for the Ford Motor Co. In early December, the rabidly right-wing American Family Association announced it was dropping its threatened boycott of Ford. It had met with Ford, and at the meeting, the company "heard our concerns; they are acting on our concerns. We are pleased with where we are." The next day, Ford spokesperson Mike Moran confirmed to the gay magazine The Advocate that the company had indeed agreed to stop advertising its Jaguar and Land Rover brands in gay publications. He did not in any way reject the AFA's claim of victory. By the way, two members of the Ford team who had met with the AFA and had seemingly thrown in the towel were former members of the Bush administration. One was a former Bush staffer and major GOP donor named Ziad Ojakli, who was also the Senate liaison for the Bush-Cheney Transition Team as well as a legislative assistant to former Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., one of the Senate's most right-wing members. The other executive was David Leitch, a former deputy general counsel to George Bush, and currently the general counsel at Ford. The AFA's Web site has been crowing over its victory for the last week. On Monday, however, other executives at Ford met with a coalition of 18 leading gay organizations. At this meeting the gay leaders expressed their discomfort over the fact that Ford, which for the last few decades has had a very good record in civil rights and workplace tolerance, had caved in to a group so conservative that it claims Jews are basically criminals because they don't believe in Christ, and that gays were responsible for the Holocaust. Also mentioned was the fact that the AFA has no real power outside of representing a few thousand lunatics. The AFA boycott of Disney amounted to nothing. The AFA tried to boycott Kraft foods, but Kraft just laughed at them. No sensible company pays any attention to the AFA. So why had Ford? As a result, Ford became the butt of jokes. Jon Stewart, host of " The Daily Show," made fun of it, national columnists were mocking the company, even automobile industry newsletters were expressing shock and outrage. Then, the other day, Ford made its official statement on the supposed AFA victory. There was, indeed, no AFA victory. Instead, according to a press release from the National Gay and Lesbian Task force, Ford has reaffirmed "its commitment to its progressive workplace policies, said it would place corporate advertising in LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) publications on behalf of all of its brands, including Jaguar and Land Rover, and would continue financial support for LGBT organizations and events consistent with its business condition." In other words, despite the best efforts of the AFA, this is a victory for all Americans: gay, straight, male, female, black, white. Why the company stumbled so ridiculously for a few weeks seems to be the fault of the former Bush administration members in the company's hierarchy, but only Ford itself is privy to its internal problems. Still, Ford has done the right thing. And just as Ford has reiterated its belief that tolerance is a virtue rather than a liability, perhaps the Bush administration -- which seems to be seeding corporate America with its former members -- will learn a lesson from this debacle as well. Journalist and screenwriter Gene Stone has written more than 25 books -- mostly as a ghostwriter -- including the recent national best-seller "The Bush Survival Bible."